Velominati Super Prestige: Mens Omloop Het Volk (Nieuwsblad) 2015
The real Velominati VSP will not begin until La Primavera. Het Volk will be a one-off warm up for the big show, no points, just some bragging rights and a V-musette. All that time wasted watching “racing” in Qatar and Oman (sorry @ChrisO) will not be in vain. Every contender for Het Volk can still find some middle eastern wind driven sand in his shoes and all the riders who want to win the Ronde will be in Gent. Those who get shelled off the hellingen too soon will know they have their work cut out for them to make the Ronde start.
This race starts and ends in Ghent; 198 km of cold, wind, rain, climbs and cobbles. The weather may not suck for this Saturday but that’s OK, the wind and rain is being banked for Paris-Roubaix. A start list is here.
With equal doses of cobbles and climbs, Het Volk is the opening of the season for us who love the Spring Classics. Up until ten years ago, Belgians won this race, almost exclusively. Ten years ago no one was racing in Dubai as preparation. The Belgians were out there, in Belgium, armed with embrocation and the big ring, killing themselves all winter to come out strong when the bell was rung. The bell will be rung on Saturday, round one.
Look to the countdown banner to know when the betting window closes. Refresh your browser or your name will be Pedro.
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Roobar again (under his alter ego)
VSP PICKS:
1. Boonen
2. Van avermaet
3. Wiggins
4. Boasen hagan
5. Vanmarke
Nearly missed it
VSP PICKS:
1. Sep Vanmarcke
2. Greg van Avermaet
3. Alexander Kristoff
4. Niki Terpstra
5. Tom Boonen
VSP PICKS:
1. Evald Boasson Hagen
2. Sep Vanmarcke
3. Van Avermaet
4. Luke Rowe
5. Alexander Kristoff
VSP PICKS:
1. Kristoff
2. Boonen
3. Van Avermaet
4. Wiggins
5. Boasson Hagen
.
VSP PICKS:
1. Van marke
2. Boonen
3. phil gil
4. Wiggo
5. terpstra
Not sure it’s working : 1 Kristoff. 2. Vandebergh. 3. Van Avermaet. 4 Demare. 5 B Hagen.
VSP PICKS:
1. A Kristoff
2. S Vadebergh
3. G. Van Avermaet
4. A Demare
5. E Boason Hagen
VSP PICKS:
1. Kristoff
2. Demarre
3. Brandle
4. Keisse
5. Stannard
VSP PICKS:
1. Boonen
2. Kristoff
3. Demare
4. Rowe
5. Vanmarke
Delgadoed – bugger
Well those of us with GVA in our picks are well and truly screwed – Greg Van Avermaet suspended due to doping investigation.
Balls.
Wait a minute, no, I’m wrong, I can’t read properly at this time on a Saturday
Let’s give it a try.
VSP picks:
1. Van Avermaet
2. Terpstra
3. Boonen
4. Sinkeldam
5. Ligthart
@Al__S
Jaysus, Man. You can’t drop that kind of vibe and then backtrack! Bad form. Hill Repeats for you!
Bugger, delgadoed. Just for the hell of it:
1. Stybar
2. Vanmarcke
3. Kristoff
4. Boonen
5. Debusschere
That was a fast open and shut window! Here’s mine if it’s not too late:
1. Sep Venmarcke
2. Niki Terpstra
3. G V Avermaet
4. Alexander Kristoff
5. Tom Boonen
GET IN….
Awesome ride by Stannard. Three Quickstep v Stannard and he still won. Brilliant.
nice work Stannard!
@ChrisO
I never cheer for the English as a rule but THAT was fkn impressive. Very cool how he pulled Boonen back without a hint panic then countered the counter attack. I thought Terpstra would do him easy in the sprint. Strong and smart. Awesome start to the season.
Whoah!! How the hell did he do that – awesome sandbagging with 2km to go, and what was Terpstra doing leading him out….. what a carry on! Love it
Quiet table at dinner tonight in the EtQS hotel
Outnumbered and with the added pressure as defending champ, Yogi was just too good. He’s talked in the past about wanting to be the 1st Brit to win Paris Roubaix so I suspect Wiggins will be congratulating him thru gritted teeth.
Well I bet the Schlecks were having a good laugh.
No longer the worst choke in recent memory.
How fucking simple was it – let Stijnbergh and Terpstra work him over and let Boonen – you know, the former world champion and green jersey winner – sit on Stannard’s wheel and go for the sprint.
What’s Belgian for ‘Duh’?
@ChrisO
Yep, Schleck’s LBL bungle was not as dumb as this. Brilliant win by Stannard. I’m glad he could defend so well. I bet Wiggins would not have done the job if he was up there.
What a ride by the machine that is Ian Stannard! That’s how to deliver a tripel custard pie into the face of Etixx Quickstep!
Just watched the last 10km, what a ride! Match the attacks and then break the opposition down with one of your own from 3km out.
Cycling has to be one of the only sorts in which 2nd, 3rd and 4th places signifies abject failure.
@Al__S takes a narrow win; what a ride by Stannard and Boonen looks to be back to his old form as well!
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Ooh, that patriotic punt on a double did me good! Doubt I can hold that lead!
Wow chapeau Mr Stannard, brilliant tactics all the way, make em work to hold off the chasers, then just lay down more V than your opponents, love to see some telemetry from that last 10km, how he kept his cool in the final, outstanding!
Zero Points, …..crash and burn!
OK, I overstated to say that finish was as lame as the Schlecks at LBL. Tommy did try a run at 5 km and Stijn was ruined by the end and Terpstra obviously has no sprint.
Brothers Schleck just rode Gilbert to the finish at LBL then pulled off and let Phil Gil win. That was still much more lame than this finish. Stannard has some serious strength right now. He should have a good spring.
@Gianni
Strong indeed and a very cool head to stick to his own plan when reeling in the attacks.
Terpstra’s sprint was poor considering he’d had a free ride for the last 3km.
Things are looking good, first Contrador and Froome beat the shit out of each other in the Portuguese mountains and now the Spring Classics kick of with a cracker.
@Chris
Didn’t Stannard come close to winning Milano-Sanremo during that nasty edition? He would be a worthy winner of that this year. He and G. Thomas are my boys on Sky these days. And Kennaugh for his white socks, of course.
@Gianni
He did although from memory he was a bit fucked and didn’t really contend the final sprint. Sky are looking good with Stannard, Thomas (picked up a GC win last week) and Wiggo not to mention the likes of Eisel and Rowe. Could this be there year when they come good for the classics. They have had some great moments stage racing but they’ve been pretty underwhelming in the Northern races.
@Chris
“When they all started attacking me it wasn’t a great feeling. When Boonen went I was thinking ‘right, what do I do here?’ I knew if I rode him back I’d get attacked. I paced myself back a little bit. I could feel the wheel behind was trying hard to stay with me. So I felt like it was going pretty good and then I just took my chance.”
D.e.l.g.a.d.o.
Like, new baby. My daughter is having a sleep over. I’m working on the weekend. Logged on to cyclingnews and asked myself, “What? Racing? For reals?” DELGADO.
Wow.
@Gianni
What I don’t get is why Terpstra let Stannard get behind him in the last k? Even if he pulls a trackstand, just stop as well, the only bloke who’s gonna catch up to you is Tommeke, so the team still wins…
@Gianni
I don’t think so Gianni.
LBL was two against one, not three. And the one was Gilbert, who at the time was unstoppable, with a superb classics pedigree.
This was three to one, and while Stannard isn’t chopped liver, he’s on the level of Vandenbergh but not Terpstra or Boonen.
Yes LBL was lame but it somehow seemed inevitable – it was really that nothing happened, except the Schlecks let Gilbert ride over them.
This was incredible, both for the succession of tactical cock-ups and for who was committing them, plus the excitement of seeing Stannard pull it off.
@ChrisO
I think Etixx didn’t have much of a choice but to fuck it up royally. Stannard owes Sep and Greg a pint for making the trio work so hard because by the time they were clear, all of them were way too fucked to attack and counter-attack.
If Etixx had been caught, they would’ve gained Stybar but left to contend with Vanmarke and Van Avermaet. Very risky, and losing to either would’ve been very embarrassing. So they worked hard, and had to hold off on attacking Stannard.
Basically, without that furious chase, they would’ve been able to tire him out earlier. The way things turned out, he had an armchair ride to 5km out, instead of fighting to survive those 35km that preceded. Plus, remember he’s a former Pursuit rider – that counts as “can sprint” here on the road.
The final 5k were full of cock-ups, and Stannard rode masterfully – but I don’t think they had much of a chance of beating him. He was just far fresher. Even before the 5k point, Tommeke had troubles hanging on, they were on fumes.
P.S The Schlecks at least tried to attack on the climbing before the finish. Too bad it was against SuperGilbert.
Absolutely brilliant way to start the classics. I hope this is just a taste of whats to come!
K-B-K today isn’t it… not much pressure on Cav then !
What was I thinking having not a single Quickstep Ettix in my picks – major brain malfunction on this one. Same mistake won’t happen again.
Are people still doing Downfall pastiches? Ettix team debrief seems like a worthy topic.
@@blackpooltower
Hitler would get very angry if he knew you were even asking.
Good idea though, I’d watch it. Patrick LeFuhrer in the Quickstep bunker.
Wow… someone earlier posted, >>> don’t underestimate Stannard <<< You all see Tommeke riding Stannard’s wheel, having a snack, a drink and scratching his beard in a cool cat kinda way right before he hit it? When he attacked he had to be thinking, I’m gone, see ya… So he’s reeled in and Terpstra goes and when Vandenbergh followed he had to be thinking that no way Stannard was gonna latch on and the two of ’em would be riding off. Then Terpstra riding Stannard’s wheel at the end jumps way to early probably thinking he was simply gonna ride around and by him… Wow! Stannard was underestimated big time. And with the Quickstep director whining about Stannard not taking pulls? Well wtf ??? Three on one ??? Much respect for Mr. Stannard. Strong.
Sure seems like Lefevre does a whole lot of whining whenever one of his boys doesn’t win when they’re supposed to. I understand he’s got to back his riders, but it’s always someone else’s fault.
Stannard had absolutely no reason to do any work at the end. Name me one guy who would have in that situation. The EQS boys simply got beat by a guy who rode a smarter race. End of.
I watched the end of this last night, I nearly spit soda all over my computer when I saw what happened.
I am still shaking my head, wtf was that!
Also, diggin the 4th place finish, but why can’t I score a result like that when it counts?!
@Roger
+1 on this response
So Cav saves the weekend for Quickstep.
And a British double to open the season. Good omen for Wiggo I hope.
Cav praising his team after the race (though in the chaos, that sprint was all him- his instinct to latch on Kristoff at the right moment was superb) except for the DS, who he says didn’t think he could win it. Strife in the EQS camp?